interviews Archives - Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources

I have a good deal of admiration and respect for the author and professor David Ball, so when he tweets me that he’s editing a new series of books to be published by the University Press of Mississippi, I snap to attention.

Actually, this is apparently rather old news, as Ball blogged about this stuff more than a year ago. Still, it was news to me, so I took the opportunity to quiz him over email about this series and his hopes for it.

Set only a few months after 9/11, the bookcenters around a group of twentysomethings, more or less fresh out of college, working at an aspiring dot-com in the Big Apple and trying to figure out what exactly they want to do with their lives. Like satellites, many of them seem to rotate to one degree or another around the titular character, an attractive young woman who is driven by her left-wing political beliefs and trying to ascertain how to adhere to them in the workaday world.

Far from being some sort of one-sided political screed however, Bongiolatti asks questions about the effectiveness of any political movement, no matter how noble, and how best to affect change in the world while still being able to maneuver through it effectively.

I talked with Dawson over email the last few weeks about the book, its themes, politics and the joys of working with a large cast of characters.

Angie Bongiolatti is set within a very specific place and time, New York immediately after 9/11. What made you decide to set your story during this period rather than, say, during the Iraq War or during the Bush/Gore election. Or later?

The Bush/Gore election was the last time in my life when I was completely and blissfully unaware of current events and had no opinion on what was happening. I had no television set at the time, the Internet wasn’t yet an all-consuming focal point of my life, and plus I was 25 years old, and just didn’t care about the world outside of my own social life.

The period after 9/11 was that short window in time where the rest of the world was more or less on America’s “side” when it came to their response. To be against the invasion of Afghanistan was a minority position to take. The invasion seemed legitimate. I remember there were some voices of dissent at the time – David Rees’ Get Your War On being this great voice screaming into the roaring winds of war. I loved that comic. It might have been the first webcomic I experienced in real time.

Last year for our fourth anniversary I spoke with Frank J. Barbiere and Chris Mooneyham, the creative team behind Five Ghosts. After running a successful Kickstarter campaign, the duo was preparing for the launch of the miniseries at Image Comics.

And here we are a year later and a lot has happened with Five Ghosts, which has gone from a five-issue miniseries to an ongoing series. I caught up with Barbiere to discuss the comic’s success, their plans for future issues and more. Also watch for my separate interview with Barbiere about The White Suits, a comic he and Toby Cypress are launching at Dark Horse.

You’ve seen them at amusement parks and train stations, and perhaps even glimpsed some makeshift ones at weddings and other large social functions. Photo booths have been a part of Americana for generations, despite digital technology threatening to make them a relic of yesteryear. Still, most of us give them little thought beyond the opportunity to get a quick picture taken.

Not so with Meags Fitzgerald. The Canadian artist has been obsessed with the technology, history and aesthetics of photo booths for years, and she’s managed to turn her interest into a graphic novel, Photobooth: A Biography, which will be released in May by Conundrum Press. As you might expect, it delves deeply into the history of the device, its significance and what is being lost in the move to digital.

I interviewed Fitzgerald by email last week about her upcoming book and abiding love for this disappearing technology.

If Andrew MacLean has his way — and your help — heads will lop once again.

Earlier this year MacLean self-published Head Lopper #1, an action-filled tale of one viking’s quest to decapitate monsters, and the annoying severed witch head that he drags along with him. It was a great introduction, but not near long enough … which is something MacLean hopes to remedy. He’s currently running a Kickstarter so he can publish issue #2, which promises more pages, more head-lopping and more of that evil witch head.

I spoke with MacLean about both issues of the series, as well as his tale in last Wednesday’s issue of Dark Horse Presents and much more. My thanks to Andrew for his time.

JK Parkin: For those who may not have heard of Head Lopper, can you give a few details on what it’s about and how it came about?

Andrew MacLean:Head Lopper follows nomadic Viking warrior Norgal and his companion, the severed heard of Agatha Blue Witch. When they aren’t bickering and torturing each other, they are traveling about beheading monsters or whatever or whomever might get in their way.

Head Lopper actually originated from a Brand New Nostalgia piece I did. The theme that the members had chosen for the week was “Viking” and I just had so much fun with it I just knew I had to run with it. So I redesigned that same character a little bit, including the severed head he was originally pictured with and started putting together some rather simple classic-feeling stories for the unlikely pair.

One guest is particularly notable: Stan Sakai, whose signature creation, Usagi Yojimbo, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. To help celebrate Usagi and his creator, the convention will offer a special yearbook featuring the long-eared samurai as drawn by a variety of creators who are attending the show.

There’s a new hero in town, one straight out of the Golden Age … wait, what? Captain Ultimate by Joey Esposito, Benjamin Bailey, Boykoesh and Ed Ryzowski debuts on comiXology today as one of five new titles from Monkeybrain Comics. The all-ages superhero title centers on a young boy and his admiration for a Golden Age hero, Captain Ultimate, who disappeared some years before — but makes his triumphant return just in time to save a city from a giant monster.

I spoke with Esposito and Bailey about the new comic, which they’ll discuss tonight at the Monkeybrain panel at Comic-Con International in San Diego (8 p.m. in Room 28DE)

Thirty-six questions. Six answers. One random number generator. Welcome to Robot Roulette, where creators roll the virtual dice and answer our questions about their lives, careers, interests and more.

Joining us today is Evan “Doc” Shaner, who you might know from IDW’s Ghostbusters, Jim Henson’s The Storyteller, the excellent Buddy Cops, Eerie Comics, Green Hornet: Year One Special and Blood Brothers, which arrives from Dark Horse on July 17.